This invention relates to a mouse as an input device of a computer with a monitor having a windows application, and in particular, to such a mouse having an additional manually-operating mechanism for inputting additional instruction or control signals such as, for example, scroll control signals.
In a computer with a monitor a windows application, there are displayed on a screen of a monitor identification marks which are referred to as icons for identifying programs, documents and other applications. A cursor or pointer is also displayed for selectively pointing to one of the icons to open a desired one of the programs or documents. A mouse is used for controlling movement of the cursor on the screen to point to one of the icons for indication or actuation of opening of the program or document identified by the icon that is pointed at by the cursor.
Therefore, the mouse includes a motion detector for detecting a two-dimensional motion of the mouse itself to produce a positional signal which is used for controlling movement of the cursor on the screen so that the cursor moves on the screen according to the motion of the mouse. As the motion detector, there are known various types in the art. In a typical one, a trackball is mounted in the mouse to be freely rotated and therefore rotates according to motion of the mouse on a plane. A converting mechanism including photo-electric encoders is also mounted in the mouse to be coupled with the trackball and convert the rotation of the trackball into X and Y quadrature signals as a position signal.
Further, the mouse has at least one, usually two, click switch mechanisms for indication or actuation of the icon pointed by the cursor. Each of the click switch mechanism comprises a micro switch mounted in the mouse and a click button for manually operating the micro switch from the outside of the mouse. Therefore, the click buttons are exposed outside of a housing of the mouse.
On the other hand, there are messages in bit-mapped memory which are partially displayed at one time in a window area opened on the monitor and scrolled continuously so that the messages are displayed one part after another part. The scrolling operation is usually performed by handling a mouse to point and indicate an icon representing the scroll by moving the mouse and manipulating the click button.
Recently, there has been proposed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,455 and actually used a scroll control system in which the scroll can be controlled directly from a mouse. Therefore, the mouse additionally has a scroll control mechanism for controlling the scroll operation directly from the mouse. In detail, the scroll control mechanism comprises an additional switch for selecting a scroll mode and a control wheel for controlling selection of up-scroll and down-scroll and a scrolling speed and/or distance. The control wheel is rotatably mounted in a housing of the mouse and partially exposed outside the housing to be capable of being manually operated or rotated. The control wheel is coupled to a photo-electric encoder for producing a scroll signal which comprises a speed and/or distance signal representing a rotation speed of the control wheel and a direction signal representing a rotational direction of the control wheel. As known in the art, the photo-electric encoder comprises a photo-coupler and a rotary disk with a plurality of small holes. The rotary disk is rotated together with the control wheel.
The control wheel is also elastically supported in the housing to be pushed down to actuate the scroll mode selection switch.
In operation of the scroll system using the mouse, when the control wheel is rotated without pushing down the control wheel, the messages displayed on the monitor are scrolled by rotating the control wheel. The up-scroll and down-scroll are determined by rotational direction of the control wheel and the scrolling speed is determined by rotational speed of the control wheel.
On the other hand, after selecting the scroll mode by pushing down the control wheel to actuate the scroll mode selection switch, the messages displayed on the monitor can be scrolled continuously once rotating the control wheel. The scroll direction and speed are dependent on the rotational direction and angle of the control wheel. When the control wheel is again pushed down to actuate the scroll mode selection switch, the scroll mode is cancelled.
In the scroll mode, the motion detector is also used for providing the scroll control signal. When the mouse is moved at a distance in a direction after selecting the scroll mode, the distance and the direction detected by the motion detector provide the scroll direction and speed.
In the mouse with the control wheel used in the scroll system, it is troublesome for users to manually rotate the control wheel for controlling the scroll.
Further, the mouse is complicated by provision of the photo-electric encoder in addition to the position detector.